It has witnessed major weather events from hurricane Katrina in 2005 to icy Christmas blizzards that crippled the U.S. in 2009.

But the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite 12 has finally stopped recording the weather patterns of the East Coast of the U.S. - after 3,788 days.

To honour the decommissioning of the weather satellite, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in the U.S. has created a time-lapse video of all the weather events GOES-12 has witnessed in the last decade.

Scroll down for video

Geostationary satellite GOES-12 captured this visible image of Hurricane Katrina on August 28, 2005. At that time, the storm was at Category 5 strength and projected to impact New Orleans

Due to thruster control issues, the satellite drifted south of the equator to spend its last three years studying the weather of South America, although it still managed to provide images of hurricane Sandy in October 2012.

Launched in July 2001, the satellite lasted well beyond its
original operational design life of two years for on-orbit storage and
five years of actual operations to support forecasters and scientists in
NOAA’s National Weather Service, according to the organisisation.

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'GOES-12 gave the Western Hemisphere many years of reliable data as the operational eastern GOES for accurate forecasts, from small storms to those of historic proportions,' said Mary Kicza, assistant administrator for NOAA’s Satellite and Information Service.

The satellite started its service by monitoring weather across the U.S. East Coast and part of the Atlantic Ocean.

In January 2010 GOES-12 captured a
powerful storm developing in the U.S. mid-west and in the coming days, two
blizzards hit the East Coast resulting in historic snowfall totals.

TO BOLDLY GOES-12

GOES-12 (known as GOES-M before becoming operational) is an American weather satellite.

It was part of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite system.

The satellite was launched in 2001 and was decommissioned last week.

It was operating in the GOES-EAST position, providing coverage of the east coast of the United States.

In May 2010, when the geostationary satellite was no longer able to be maintained to meet the requirements of the National Weather Service, it was shifted to a new position, where it provided coverage of weather conditions affecting South America, including volcanic ash clouds, wildfires, and drought.

To decommission GOES-12, the NOAA boosted the satellite further into orbit using its remaining fuel, before turning off the battery and transmitters.

This manoeuvre was designed to reduce the chances of the satellite colliding with other operational spacecraft as well as lowering the risk of orbital debris and preventing the satellite from transmitting any signals that could interfere with any current or future spacecraft.

On January 29, 2010, GOES-12 captured a powerful storm developing in the U.S. mid-west. In the coming days, two blizzards hit the East Coast resulting in historic snowfall totals.

Engineers work on the GOES-M (GOES-12) satellite before launch. It provided weather imagery to support weather forecasting and severe storm tracking for the East Coast of the U.S for ten years

While GOES-12 is now silent, GOES-13,
which serves as the GOES East satellite for the U.S. and GOES-15, which
covers the West Coast, are both hovering 22,300 miles above the equator.

Another back-up satellite, GOES-14, can be activated if the others fail.

Ms Kicza said: 'The NOAA-NASA partnership is making steady progress toward developing and launching the more advanced GOES-R satellite series to position us into the future.'

This satellite is expected to more than double the clarity of today’s
GOES imagery and provide more atmospheric observations by sending more images more frequently.

Data from the GOES-R instruments will be used to create different products that will help meteorologists monitor the atmosphere, land, ocean and the sun.

The satellites will also carry a new 'geostationary lightning mapper' that will provide a continuous surveillance of total lightning activity throughout the Americas and adjacent oceans for the first time, according to the NOAA.

The organisation seeks to understand and predict changes in the Earth's environment, from the depths of the ocean to the surface of the sun.